A non-binary ecology

2021
Team point of view
With the expression ‘non-binary ecology’ we refer to all the matter that lies between two opposites definitions such as urban/rural, soft/hard, organic/human made. We want to enhance all the gradients that stand in the 'infra-space', to reveal and emphasise their hidden potential at all the design scales. The site of Namur Sart Hulet, silently standing between contrasting extremes, offers the opportunity of an original urban development that we enabled through the individuation of rules and examples: we structured our proposal with guidelines that we deepened through the design case studies. ‘Enhancement of the non-conforming’, ‘Zero Net land take’ and ‘conscious domestication’ are the three rules that guided all the design process.

Jury point of view
The jury appreciates the sensitivity of the proposal and how it goes from the global strategy to the detail. There are different intensities in the strategies throughout the plot, with sometimes extremely delicate elements, small interventions that transform neglected areas into innovative cultural devices – while other times it is the intensity of construction that becomes a radical statement, such as the adaptive tower, the point of maximum density. The project covers the complete site, but with a recognizable coherence based on the ecological continuities, network of paths and corridors, and elements of infrastructure that follow the main routes.